Fiends & Falchions (SWCL)

Well, my latest alternate version of Swords & Wizardry Continual Light is finished, but this one feels different. It is SWCL. It is D&D stripped down to its essentials. Yet, it isn't.

I'll be interested to hear folk's impressions as they read this. Again, I really haven't done much to the nuts and bolts of SWCL, so I am curious if this reads any different for you.

As per usual, I have done my best to edit out typos and errors, but I am sure there are several riddled throughout that have gotten past these efforts. Please also consider this a thread for pointing out these errors. Thank you.

In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys! You can find the link here.

FF Monsters and SWCL Part 2

Back when I first started looking into the FF seriously, I made the observation that the number of monster entries per page was significantly lower than the MMI. I chalked it up to the growing complexity of D&D and its inevitable crawl towards the rules-heavy editions to come. I also admitted that, despite being my favorite of all the early monster collections, there were a number of monsters I’d never used specifically because of the verbose entires and all the little fiddly bits associated with these creatures.

Now that I am actually converting a selection of FF creatures to SWCL, I find myself struggling to keep the texts describing several of these monsters short. Of course, by “short” I mean the one sentence descriptions that characterize so many of the creatures in SWCL. For example:

Zombie
AC: 8[11] HD: 2 Attacks: +2, slam (1d6) Move: 6 Special: Undead
Shambling corpses who crave the blood and brains of the living.

Compare that to a similar HD undead creature that I’ve endeavored to convert from the FF:

Huecuva
AC: 2[17] HD: 2
Attacks: +2, claw (1d4) Move: 6
Special: Undead; Immune to Normal Weapons; Disease; Spellcasting; Vulnerable to Silver
Robed, worm-eaten walking corpses can cast Illusion on themselves three times a day to appear to be normal. When hit, victims must make a Save or get a diseased that prevents all magical healing until the victim receives a Cure Condition spell. Huecuva take +1 damage from silver weapons.

Note that I have seriously trimmed this down from its original and even from its simplified version in the S&W edition of Tome of Horrors Complete.

To put this more concretely, SWCL averages 6 monster entries per page. When I put together Swords & Shapeshifters, I managed to get 7 monster entries per page. I am guesstimating that I’ll be around 4 entires per page when I am done typesetting my FF version of SWCL.

It's fascinating that, despite my efforts at finding the simplest way to present these monsters, I am finding myself following in the footsteps of Don Turnbull and company. I am writing verbose monster descriptions and I am beginning to understand why.

The monsters that inhabit both SWCL and MMI are largely creatures that pervade our cultural consciousness. Even if someone who doesn’t play D&D or has never read Tolkien will still have an idea of what an orc is. Certainly the word “zombie” needs little to no description at all.

In contrast, the FF is full of creatures that the average person may have never heard of before. Huecuva certainly falls into this category. Whereas I can assume most people will be able to fill in the blanks when it comes to goblins, orcs and zombies, I can’t when it comes to creatures like the huecuva, volt and even the somewhat familiar flind.

In retrospect, this may be what has so powerfully drawn me towards the FF: there are very little cultural preconceptions about the creatures found in its pages. Therefore, I am more free to expect more of what I want from them than I ever could from an orc.

FF Monsters and SWCL

I am in process of converting a bunch of FF monsters to SWCL and it is actually kind of a fascinating process, assuming that one can only use the FF as a source (which I am). Besides the various systemic differences (which, to be honest, are really just figuring out ways to trim down the mechanics to their most elegant simplicity) I am facing three larger issues:

1. Non-OGL monsters. One of the most iconic monsters of the FF (the Githyanki) and one of my favorite (and criminally under-utilized) monsters (the Slaad) are non-OGL and therefore have to be re-imagined in ways that feel familiar but, for legal reasons, are different.
2. References to creature outside the FF. The best example of this is the Flind. These are a special type of Gnoll, which don’t exist within the confines of the FF. To a lesser extent, this is also an issue with the Githyanki because their lore so heavily relies upon the Mind-Flayer, which not only doesn’t exist within the confines of the FF, but are also non-OGL.
3. There are about 160 monster entries in the FF. Due to the scope of SWCL, that number needs to be trimmed to about 30 and those 30 need to present something that resembles a cohesive science-fantasy world-view.

The first is actually probably the easiest of the three to solve because I have already treaded these waters before. I have a collection of monsters I used when I wrote The Caves of Cormikir, which was my version of B2:The Keep on the Borderlands that conceptually would have been part of the Basic D&D boxed set had the FF been the source of all the monsters. I also have my own version of the Githyanki that I have used for years in my Lost Colonies campaign.

Nonetheless, I still have to cut out the creature references from sources outside of the FF. There are two main ways I plan to do that:

In the case of the Flind, being described as hyena-men gives me leeway to create an entire class of monsters called “Beastmen” of which the Flind is a type. This then gives me the freedom to re-skin virtually all the of various humanoid monsters as some variation of the “beastman type.” Bullywugs become frogmen. Kuo-Toa become fishmen. Grimlocks become molemen, etc. This also allows me to re-skin Flinds, Ogrillons and Lizard Kings as exceptional types that exist within all variations of beastmen.

The second main strategy is to re-write the narrative behind the Githyanki (Sons of Cyn). Rather than their ancient conflict being with the Illithid, that conflict will be with the Slaad. Since the the number if demons and devils in the FF is rather sparse and since their really is no significant difference between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Evil in my book, the Slaad will also be a nice stand-in for demons and devils (I’ll call them Fiends of Entropy as a little nod to the title of FF).

This conflict, rather than happening across various planes of Gygax’s cosmology, happens, for lack of a better phrase, in the Prime Material Plane. As a consequence, creation itself has begun to rebel. This is the origin of things like dragons, who are more personifications of elemental forces than a traditional D&D dragon. Since FF dragons are “Oriental” I’ll use the five-point Asian elemental system rather than the four-point European. This will give a framework from which to understand all of the creatures I choose: they have evolved out of this greater conflict between the Sons of Cyn and the Fiends of Entropy.

This, then, gives me a criteria to trim the fat, as it were. If I can’t see a way to include a creature in these two frameworks (beastmen and the conflict between the Sons of Cyn and the Fiends of Entropy), I just won’t include it.

SWCL + FF

Long before I ever went through the Monster Manual 2 to see what would happen to B/X if the only monsters available to Moldvay came from the MMII, I did the very same thought experiment with my personal favorite the Fiend Folio. Since I have already produced a version of SWCL that uses only MMII monsters, I thought I'd do the same with the monsters of the Fiend Folio. So, as a preview, here is the cover art:

Gamer ADD: Monster Manual II Part 1

A few years ago, I did a series of posts based around the idea of seeing what would happen to Moldvay’s Basic D&D if the Fiend Folio had been the source of all the monsters instead of the more traditional ones found in the Monster Manual and the monster section of my favorite version of D&D.

As happens when I start thinking about gaming and actually gaming, my brain jumps from one idea to another in what can only be described as Gamer Attention Deficit Disorder. I was recently thumbing through the Monster Manual II in search of inspiration for some 5e monsters, when my brain began to think on the possibility of repeating the aforementioned exercise with the MMII instead of the FF.

What makes this possibility interesting to me is that the MMII has always been my least favorite of all the monster manuals. This is in part because I did not buy it upon release in hopes that I could be surprised as a player when new monsters came crawling out of the woodwork. Unfortunately, so much of the work in the MMII is derivative that I only found myself disappointed rather than surprised.

When I finally got my hands on one, I found that the collection was as boring and disappointing as I’d feared. Like its predecessors, the MMII has an overarching theme. The MMI is chuck full of mythological and literary monsters. The FF has a definite sci-fi vibe to it. The MMII is an expansion of Gygax’s underdark and planar cosmology. Whereas I am a huge fan of mythology and the literature of science fiction and fantasy, I have no love for either Gygax’s version of the underdark or the various D&D planes. Indeed, when I am world building, these are two concepts that are left on the cutting room floor almost every time.

As a result, I don’t find any really iconic monsters in the MMII that demand entire campaigns or even adventures to be structured around. I am constantly fighting the the preconceptions that come with the theme: the underdark and the planes. If experience has taught me anything when it comes to D&D, however, it is that there are many hidden gems within even the most familiar of texts.

Therefore, I am actually looking forward to this series of posts. I can’t wait to find those gems that I have passed by all these years because of my own disdain for the MMII.

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio + The Caves of Chaos

I am suffering a rather severe case of Gamer ADD and am struggling to keep my focus on any one project; however, one of this plethora has sort of emerged as something that I may very well have an opportunity to finish sometime in the nearish future. As I have noted, since WotC started to re-release its D&D library as .pdfs, Moldvay’s Basic Edition and B2 The Keep on the Borderland have hogged the 1 and 2 spots of top selling items over at RPGNow.

One of my most popular series of posts was an intellectual exercise to see how Moldvay’s Basic Edition would look like if the monster section only had creatures from the Fiend Folio. Although I did end up making Wandering Monster Tables and I did stock a dungeon using them, I never took the whole exercise to the next level: producing a version of the Caves of Chaos that would have come with that Fiend Folio’d version of Moldvay’s Basic Edition.

Given the popularity of both B2 and Moldvay’s wonderful little red book, I decided to take on the task. I can’t speak for other folks who write adventures, but there are those that fight you every inch of the way (my continuing struggles with my version of The Chateau des Faussesflammes immediately comes to mind) and those that seem to write themselves. When I started thinking about re-imaging the Caves of Chaos infested with Fiends from my favorite Folio, the adventure definitely fell into the latter category.

I have a similar variety of monsters in store, with a similar spread of HD, a similar amount of available treasure, a far more naturalistic make-up for why those monsters are there and a little over 40 more rooms to explore. Here is a little background to whet the appetite (and put a fire to my feet to get this thing done):

The Caves of Cormakir the Conjurer

Also called The Caves of Cormakir the Chaotic or The Caves of Chaos

Almost two decades ago, a group of adventurers happened upon a collection of caves on the edge of the Wilderness. They explored them, rid them of all the horrors that dwelt within and returned laden with the riches that adventure sometimes brings. One of their number, Cormakir the Conjurer, decided to make the caves his own with the intention of having them be a new vanguard against the forces of Chaos that lurked in the Wilderness.

Unbeknownst to all, there was something yet undiscovered within the caves that corrupted Cormakir to his core. Rather than making the caves a vanguard, he turned them into a laboratory for creating vile creatures intent on wrecking havoc upon Civilization. Fortunately, his experiments got out of hand before he was able to mass an army of Chaos and several of his menagerie escaped. Thus warned, his former companions and a small force of soldiers descended upon the caves and put an end to Cormakir and his depraved research.

Though the survivors went thoroughly through the Conjurer’s demesne, they could not find what it was that had corrupted him. Thus, they abandoned the caves for fear of being corrupted themselves.

That battle took place ten years ago. There is now growing evidence that there is a new master of the caves, who is sending out raiding parties of humanoids intent on not only wrecking havoc, but taking prisoners. A call has gone out throughout the area for a new generation of adventurers to return to the Caves of Cormakir the Conjurer and rid it of its evil once and for all.

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 10

Stocking the Dungeon

When I put together the Wandering Monster Tables (WMT) for a FF Basic Edition, I promised to find a map and stock it using those tables. At the time, I had in mind the maps of Dyson Logos, whose hand drawn maps have found their way into my games on more than one occasion and also spearheaded the geomorph revival that gets put to such good use over at Dave’s Mapper. Unfortunately, Dyson’s recent output has been rather sparse and can usually fit on a 3x5 index card. Undaunted, I decided to string together several of his recent maps to produce a large enough map to really give my WMTs a good test run. I had to fiddle with the maps a little in order to make them fit, but here is the result:

For those interested (and to give Dyson proper credit), the originals are here, here, here, here, here and here.

I used the dungeon stocking table from Moldvay with one addition. Holmes provides a table that allows wandering monsters from tables above or below the current dungeon level. Since I had WMTs for levels 1-3, I wanted to take advantage of them all and so utilized this table from Holmes.

Here are the results (with initial thoughts in parentheses):

Rooms with traps: 1-7
Rooms with traps guarding treasure: 8-17
Rooms with unguarded treasure: 18-20
Rooms with specials: 21-32
Rooms with monsters sans treasure:
33. Goldbug
34. Snyad
35. Iron Cobra (was this created by the Conjurers in 46 & 61 or is it a remnant from earlier occupants?)
36. Veterans
37. Warriors
38. Bullywugs (spies from more dungeon levels accessed by following the river?)
39. Dakon (trying to get his treasure back, I assume)
40. Garbug
41. Garbug
42. Firesnake
43. Giant Bats (or Gorbels if you happen to be Scott)
44. Death Dog
45. Death Dog
46. Conjurer (one of two — brother/sister combo that now rules the dungeon?)
47. Kenku (are they the friendly kind or the slaver kind?)
48. Flind
Rooms with monsters and treasure:
49. Quaggoths (did these steal the Dakon’s trasure?)
50. Snyad
51. Norker
52. Firenewt
53. Death Dog
54. Grimlocks (some of the original occupants?)
55. Assassin Bugs
56. Coffer Corpse (the reason there was construction here in the first place?)
57. Footpads (lying in wait to backstab those in combat with the Veterans in 63).
58. Kenku (helping the other Kenku)
59. Meazle (plotting against the Conjurers?)
60. Witherstench
61. Conjurer
62. Flind
63. Veterans

The fun part of this whole exercise is that this dungeon doesn’t feel all that different from a classic sample dungeon for a Basic Edition — its a pair of Magic Users who employ some evil humans and humanoids as guards. However, all the various familiar elements are twisted just enough to be unfamiliar and therefore dangerous. I especially like how the demi-human stand-ins (Dakon, Kenku and Quaggoth) don’t necessarily seem out of place or are automatically an encounter that will help out an adventuring party.

EDIT: Since there has been an interest, the map above is now a larger version and I am including this version sans numbers:

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 9

Wandering Monster Table Level 3

This is a continuation of my posts here and here. An interesting thing starts to happen with the Level 3 Wandering Monster Table (WMT) in Moldvay. The variety of monster types begins to expand. Trying to define some of them is actually quite challenging. For example, a Shadow is not undead in B/X and how does one categorize a Doppleganger? I was forced to categorize Medusae and Lycanthropes as humanoids because petrification is not common in the FF and there are no lycanthropes at all in the FF. For what it is worth, here is my attempt to strip out creature specifics and just leave general categories (the numbers in parentheses are HD and asterisks indicate special abilities, where two indicate more powerful abilities):

1. mammal (4)
2. insect (3+1)
3. humanoid (3+1)
4. scavenger (3+1*)
5. ambusher (4*)
6. insect (4*)
7. flyer (4+4*)
8. slime/ooze (4*)
9. flyer (3*)
10. construct (3)
11. humanoid (3*)
12. human (1**)
13. humanoid (4**)
14. NPC Party (var.)
15. slime/ooze (5*)
16. humanoid (4+1)
17. extra-planar (2+2*)
18. insect (4*)
19. undead (3**)
20. undead (3*)

Once again, the dearth of insects in the FF rears its head. I was forced to substitute some other kind of animal for every insect slot in this table. Surprisingly, the various weird categories had decent fits. The Skulk has a similar strategy as a Doppleganger, the Shocker is an extra-planar being like the Shadow and the Whipweed fits the scavenger slot as nicely as the Carrion Crawler does. The only other stretch I had to make was the Thoquua as a construct. The FF has a number of creatures that fit this category, but they either don’t have the right HD or are specifically not wandering monsters. Here is what I came up with:

1. Osquip (3+1)
2. Gorilla Bear (4)
3. Firenewt (2+2*)
4. Whipweed (2+4; 1+4)
5. Skulk (2*)
6. Fire Mephit (3+1*)
7. Grell (5*)
8. Stun Jelly (4*)
9. Mantari (1+1*)
10. Thoquua (3*)
11. Crabmen (3)
12. Swordsmaster (3rd level fighter)
13. Lava Children (4*)
14. NPC party (var.)
15. Algoid (5*)
16. Meazle (4)
17. Shocker (1+2*)
18. Firedrake (4*)
19. Sons of Kyuss (4*)
20. Huecuva (2*)

This WMT has a distinctly elemental feel to it. One of the reasons I chose the Thoquua as a construct was that it fit very nicely with the elemental theme. The one element that stands out is fire. Firenewts, Fire Mephits, and Firedrakes all have breath weapons. Thoquua and Lava Children have heat-related powers that can render various items useless. Another observation: there are a lot of multiple and special attacks on this list. PC parties better be ready to be creative because going toe-to-toe with this list of creatures is not a recipe for long-term success. If there isn’t an easy way to the surface from the third level of a dungeon, even one combat could place a party in danger of a TPK just trying to get out.

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 8

Wandering Monster Table Level 2

This is a continuation of what I started yesterday. Although I am itching to stock a dungeon with yesterday’s Wandering Monster Table (WMT), I am going to hold off until I complete all three levels of WMTs that would be found in a FF Basic Edition. In his advice for stocking dungeons, Moldvay suggests that there always be at least a couple of encounters that are placed rather than randomly determined. For these encounters, I like to look at and even roll on WMTs a level or two higher than the current dungeon level — a strategy akin to making them “boss” encounters.

Here is the WMT for Level 2 from Moldvay with the specific monsters stripped out. The numbers in the parentheses are HD and an asterisk indicates a special ability such as poison:

1. insect (2*)
2. human (1+1*)
3. mammal (3+2)
4. demi-human (1+1*)
5. undead (2*)
6. humanoid (2)
7. slime/ooze (3*)
8. humanoid (1+1)
9. reptile (4+2)
10. humanoid (2+1)
11. humanoid (2)
12. human (1 to 3)
13. fey (2)
14. insect (1*)
15. mammal (2)
16. reptile (2*)
17. insect (3*)
18. humanoid (2*)
19. human (1 to 3)
20. undead (2)

I will continue my strategy with humans — use classes and indicate level using level titles. A number of other challenges arise due to the variety of monsters in the FF. Undead are scarce, thus the Coffer Corpse will make a second appearance on Level 2. For a similar reason, Kenku will also make a second appearance; however, with the extra HD comes spell use. Therefore, they are not quite the same.

This is also true of the Garbug — Level 2 will see a stronger variety of this strange arthropod; however, one thing that I am beginning to notice about the FF is its dearth of insects. Yes, they do exist, but while traditional D&D monster sections have a good variety of insects that populate a number of HD ranges, the FF is spotty at best. One strategy might be to take a lower HD insect and increase the number encountered; however, I like more variety.

Therefore, I decided on placing the Gryph in one of the insect slots because using adventurers as a reproductive host seems to be a popular trope (and quite insect-like). I ran into a similar conundrum with reptiles. There are quite a few in the FF, but they are all higher HD. Thus, I went with one of my favorite FF monsters, the Volt. Here is what I came up with:

1. Gryph (2*)
2. Conjurer (3rd level MU)
3. Hoar Fox (2*)
4. Kenku (3*)
5. Huecuva (2*)
6. Qullan (2)
7. Enveloper (3*)
8. Norker (1+2)
9. Fire Snake (2*)
10. Ogrillon (2)
11. Grimlock (2)
12. Warrior (2nd level fighter)
13. Dire Corby (2)
14. Pernicon (.5*)
15. Rothé (2)
16. Volt (2+1*)
17. Garbug (3+1*)
18. Flind (2+3)
19. Robber (3rd level thief)
20. Coffer Corpse (2*)

In a strange way, this table feels a little more familiar than the Level 1 WMT. The humanoids, while still very different from your everyday run-of-the-mill orc, are still somewhat familiar. Norkers are akin to hobgoblins. Flinds are a variety of gnolls. Ogrillons are literally a cross between orcs and ogres. Even the strange looking Qullan remind me of the type of berserker I’d expect to see two levels down in a dungeon.

Of course, this doesn’t stop me from realizing that there is a kind of dangerous Alice in Wonderland kind of feel to this list. Everything may seem familiar, but beneath the familiar facade is a dark twist that contains a deadly surprise if you are not careful. I am particularly interested to see that Ghostbusters moment when a party realizes that the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man really is demonic and wants to absorb you and use your powers against your friends...

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 7

Wandering Monster Table Level 1

Among the other members of The International League of Fiend Foliasts, Chris of Vaults of Nagoh has already done an analysis of the Wandering Monster Tables (WMT) in the FF. I am not here to duplicate his work, rather I want to refashion the WMTs of Moldvay’s Basic Edition using FF monsters.

Thus, let us take a look at the WMT for Level 1 in Moldvay. For purposes of this analysis, I am categorizing the entries rather than listing specific monsters. The number in paranthesis is the HD of the creature and an asterisk indicates a special ability (such as poison):

1. human (1)
2. human (1)
3. Insect (1+2)
4. demi-human (1)
5. demi-human (1)
6. humanoid (1-1)
7. slime/ooze (2*)
8. demi-human (1-1)
9. insect (.5*)
10. humanoid (.5)
11. reptile (3+1)
12. humanoid (1)
13. mammal (2)
14. undead (1)
15. reptile (1*)
16. insect (2*)
17. fey (.5*)
18. flyer (1*)
19. human (1)
20. mammal (2+2)

It is actually quite surprising how easy it is to find a number of choices to fill many of these categories. In particular, flyers and humanoids with similar HD are in abundance; however, creativity is necessary in order to fill the human and demi-human slots since the FF has no entries for humans (no bandits, berserkers, traders, etc.) or traditional demi-humans (only drow and svirfneblin). I am going to take a page from Holmes here, and place classes for each of the human slots using level titles. For the demi-human slots, I will use my substitute demi-human race-as-class examples here. The biggest problem is the slime/ooze slot. All the various creatures in the FF that qualify for this category have much higher HD. If, however, one considers a slime/ooze to be akin to a plant, I figure a Yellow Musk Zombie could be an interesting substitute.

The result of this scheme might look like this (again, the number in parenthesis is HD and an asterisk is a special ability like poison):

1. Seer (2nd level MU)
2. Veteran (1st level fighter)
3. Assassin Bug (1+1)
4. Dakon (1+1)
5. Kenku (2)
6. Xvart (1-1)
7. Yellow Musk Zombie (2)
8. Quaggoth (1+2)
9. Goldbug (1*)
10. Jermlaine (.5)
11. Jaculi (1)
12. Bullywug (1)
13. Witherstench (2+2*)
14. Coffer Corpse (2*)
15. Iron Cobra (1*)
16. Garbug (2+2*)
17. Snyad (1-1)
18. Giant Bat (.5)
19. Footpad (2nd level thief)
20. Death Dog (2+1)

Overall, I think this list is a tad more frightening that the one found in Moldvay (one is more likely to get poisoned, ambushed, used as a reproductive host and/or have your treasure stolen). Running away must necessarily be part of an adventuring party’s repertoire (not a bad thing, actually).

Interestingly, though, there is a weird kind of bio-diversity here that seems absent in Moldvay. Whereas the WMT of Molday seems to yield goblinoids and giant animals, this FF Basic Edition WMT yields a wide variety of things — carnivorous plants, constructs and Chaos-touched animals as well as goblinoids and giant animals. I am very tempted to find me a map and roll me up some encounters to see just what kind of an ecology this WMT produces...

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 6

Frogthulhu

When I was a kid and just learning to read what my children now call “chapter books,” I spent a lot of time in my local library perusing books in the mythology section. Of particular interest to me were stories from various Native American tribes. This was something I had yet to encounter and I found them both fascinating and horrifying.

The one thing I vividly remember about these books was an illustration of the Spider Woman. Though not necessarily understood to be a monster, this illustration certainly made me think of her as one. Ironically, despite my fascination with this depiction of the Spider Woman, I have never been a big fan of D&D’s Spider Woman — Loth. This is, in part, because of her association with the drow, which I have always found . . . boring.

This is, in part, because my childhood imagination was better than a bunch of dark skinned elves. The Spider Woman (and by extension Loth) imply the horrifying notion that creatures of the insect and arachnid worlds not only look completely alien, they are alien. They are manifestations of forces in the universe intent on destroying humanity — Cthulhu in an exoskeleton, in other words.

I mention this because though there is a (short) list of creatures in the FF that hail from the lower planes, none of them invoke the hostile alien intelligence that my young mind saw in that illustration of the Spider Woman (and later in the writings of HPL). There is, however, one group that can — the grossly underutilized Slaad.

Though their alignment is technically Chaotic Neutral, not only have I argued in the past that there is so little difference between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Evil that they might as well be the same, who could argue that the Lord of Entropy and the Lord of the Insane (the Slaadi Lords Ssendam and Ygorl) could easily be seen as despots of the lower planes?

What sets the Slaad apart, however, is that they are basically all frogs. Slaadi do for amphibians what the Spider Woman does (and Loth ought to do) for insects and arachnids. They transform an entire classification of animals into an ancient alien menace determined to wipe out humanity.

This is reinforced by the fact that there are several monsters within the pages of the FF that could easily be qualified as amphibian (and therefore Slaadi minions):

• Babbler
• Blindheim
• Bullywug
• Firenewt
• Firetoad
• Vodyanoi

One of the things I really like about this understanding of amphibians is the way it plays with classic tales like the Princess and the Frog. In fact, I do believe there is an adventure in there somewhere . . .

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 5

Dark Fantasy

As I have meditated upon this thought experiment — envisioning a Basic Edition that uses the FF for its monster section — I have pointed out the fact that it heavily implies science fantasy rather than pure or high fantasy. That does not mean, however, that the FF is purely science fiction or exlusively science fantasy. Take a look at the number of monsters that are distinctly or peripherally creatures of the fey:

• Al-mi’raj
• Booka
• Carbuncle
• Dark Creeper & Dark Stalker
• Dire Borby
• Forlarren
• Galltrit
• Gryph
• Hellcat
• Hound of Ill Omen
• Kelpie
• Killmoulis
• Meazel
• Mephit
• Mite
• Needleman
• Poltergeist
• Screaming Devilkin
• Scarecrow
• Skulk
• Snyad

What is striking about this list is that the alignments of these creatures are overwhelmingly Neutral and Evil. Yes, both the Booka and Killmoulis are listed as Chaotic Good, but only parenthetically (their primary alignment is Neutral).

This overall orientation suggests that the fey are indifferent to the human codition if not downright malevolent. Indeed, some are positively demonic.

This is a world where the Summer Court, if it exists at all, does not care one whit what happens to humanity. The Winter Court is happily tormenting the civilized world if not plotting its demise.

Personally, I hold that this is as it should be. I don’t know exactly when, but somewhere in our literary and popular culture, fairies became something cute, cuddly and helpful. One need only look at the original Grimm’s Fairytales to get a taste at how gruesome the fey were once understood to be.

There was a time in my life when I was heavily involved in theatre and was even trained in dramaturgy. I was particularly interested in Shakespeare and have often fantasized about doing A Midsummer Night’s Dream as horror. There is a BBC production that comes close, but I always wanted to push it further.

Thus, while it is quite possible to understand the generic campaign world of a Basic Edition using the FF to be science fantasy, there is still a strong fantasy element (via its depiction of the fey) to the monster section. And, according to my own proclivities, it is happily very dark indeed.

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 4

The Wilderness Personified

One of the interesting consequences of having the name Dungeons & Dragons is that regardless of whether or not a particular edition is geared toward introductory characters who have no business even talking to a dragon, dragons have to be part of the game. I have mused about this before, one of the striking things about Moldvay’s Basic Edition is that the average HD of the monsters is 3+1. The Holmes edition is even nastier with an average HD of 4+4. There are meant to be monsters that are way beyond the ability of low-level PCs to deal with. Dragons fit that bill.

Though dragons do show up in the FF, they are of a whole different cloth than the now familiar chromatic and metallic dragons of traditional D&D, who personify the great powers of good and evil, who speak with ancient wisdom and hate; who might be able to cast spells and even polymorph into human form to walk among their lessors. The dragons of the FF are inspired more by the Eastern conception of the mythical beasts and every single one of them is some shade of neutral.

Whereas the chromatic and metallic dragons are characterized by their breath weapons, the powers of FF dragons are characterized by the ability to manipulate nature itself. Earthquakes, burning water, weather control, control scaled animals and ice storms can all be found in the flavor texts. Some of these creatures can do these things at will. In other words, FF dragons seem to personify the cruel indifference of nature when natural disasters reduce humanity to dust.

This calls attention to the sheer number of creatures within the FF that have some kind of elemental-type of flavor or power. Those that might appear on the Wandering Monsters Tables of a Basic edition include:

• Fire Newt
  
• Fire Snake
  
• Hoar Fox
  
• Ice Lizard
  
• Mephit
  
• Shocker
  
• Thoqqua
  
• Thork
  
• Ice Troll
  
• Vortex
  

Given that the FF also details five Elemental Princes of Evil, it is fair to say that monsters are personifications of Fallen Nature itself. They are the face and hands of The Wilderness fighting the incursion of Civilization. At the center of all of this are those terrifying and indifferent dragons, who personify natural disasters. PCs, then, represent humanity’s attempts (in vain?) to understand, control and minimize the impact of nature itself even as nature fights back.

Though the classic trope of Civilization vs. The Wilderness is part and parcel to virtually every edition of the game, this particular version (again) has more in common pulp science fiction than it does with traditional D&D game worlds. Whereas Greyhawk is all about Good vs. Evil and St. Cuthbert vs. Iuz, the implied world of a Basic Edition using the FF for monsters suggests a world in the distant future where humanity is not just struggling against chaos and evil, but against the inevitability of its own demise — a dying earth ready to be consumed by the fire of a red giant star or a long forgotten space colony on the verge of being hurled into the void. In this context, PCs don’t necessarily represent heroes, but rather that glorious human defiance in face of inexorable defeat. It is a dark and depressing vision, but with that defiance comes a small glimmer of hope and maybe even the possibility of not just survival, but victory.

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 3

Putting the Scare back into the Undead

One of the recurring challenges in D&D is that the Turning ability of clerics tends to take a lot of drama out of encounters with the undead. As a result, they normally do not garner the kind of fear and loathing that the undead ought to. If a cleric (or clerics) get into mid-level and higher, then one has to be creative in order to make undead encounters even interesting.

One of the reasons that I have always liked the FF is that the undead found therein have some bite. Given a little bit of fiddling, undead in a Basic Edition that uses the FF for its monsters could prove to be very frightening indeed.

Let’s begin with a list of all the undead in the FF:

• Apparition
• Coffer Corpse°
• Crypt Thing*†
• Eye of Fear and Flame*
• Huecuva°
• Penanggelan≠
• Poltergeist†≠
• Revenant†≠
• Sheet Ghoul§
• Sheet Phantom§
• Skeletal Warrior
• Sons of Kyuss

Some notes about this list:

* = though the description seems to indicate undead, these are not specifically described as undead. 

† = these creatures are not really meant to be wandering monsters — crypt things and poltergeists are tied to a specific encounter area; revenants are tied to a specific encounter type. 

§ = sheet phantoms and sheet ghouls do not strike me as undead creatures, despite the fact that they are described as such. Their powers and abilities are much more akin to slimes and oozes. Indeed, the sheet phantom is said to be related to the lurker above and the sheet ghoul functions much more like the non-undead yellow musk zombie than a ghoul. Therefore, I am going to treat them this way because it makes for better undead. 

≠ = these creatures either are completely immune to Turning or there are circumstances when Turning will not work on them. 

° = these might appear on Wandering Monster Tables in a Basic edition.

If we get rid of the sheet ghoul and phantom, the lowest HD undead are the coffer corpse, the heucuva and the poltergeist. Since the latter is normally associated with a single spot and cannot be Turned if it is in that spot, poltergeists don’t really function as undead creatures and can easily be recast as dark fey or some other kind of magical activity.

This leaves the low power undead spectrum to the Coffer Corpse and the Heucuva. Check out their nastiness:

• The Coffer Corpse can only be hit by magic weapons.
• The Coffer Corpse is treated as a wraith on the Turn tables.
• The Coffer Corpse can cause fear.
• The Huecuva can only be hit by silver or magic weapons.
• The Huecuva is treated as a wight on the Turn tables.
• The Huecuva can polymorph self 3x per day.
• The Huecuva can give its victims a nasty disease.

Again, given the fiddling with the undead list from the FF, these are the weakest undead in the game.

There are a few interesting consequences to this:

1. Despite a complete absence of lycanthropes, silvered weapons would still be on the equipment list because they might do damage to the undead.
2. First level clerics are incapable of Turning the undead. At second level, they can Turn a Huecuva on an 11.
3. The undead do not drain levels, but they still have some diseased ways of making you either dead or one of their own.

The long and short: if you see the undead run for your lives! Adventurers will not be capable of having a shot at survival against the undead until at least third level and even then only if the Referee is nice and gives out a few magic weapons.

It must be noted that this renders clerics, as written in B/X, very weak at low levels. They will have no ability to Turn undead and no spells at first level, reducing the incentive to play one. I realize that this will suit many folks in the OSR and will also better justify the low XP requirements for the class. Personally, I would be tempted to use the LL version of the cleric, which at least gets a spell at first level; however, given the mechanical distance this undead list implies for clerics from those of other editions, I would be inclined to chuck it all and use Talysman’s non-spellcasting version where clerics do everything using the Turning mechanic.

In other words, the undead are properly scary and the cleric becomes its own unique miracle-working class rather than something somewhere in-between a fighter and a magic-user.

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 2.5

Optional Race-as-class

For those who want to embrace the science fantasy/mutant future weirdness that I suggested in Part 2 for the generic D&D world of a Basic edition that uses the FF for its monster section, I offer this alternate race-as-class:

Qullan

This is a bit of a stretch, which is why I didn’t include it in Part 2. Normally, I would dismiss Qullan out of hand because they would make horrible PCs — they emanate confusion and immediately attack, without question, all strangers. However, their use of individualized war paint of wildly contrasting colors and their insanity suggest that they might be clones — the insanity is a result of genetic degradation over time and the war paint is a means by which to identify themselves as individuals.

Making this assumption allows the use of the Replicant class from Section 9: Mutants & Mazes in Mutant Future. For those that aren’t familiar, they are clones that exhibit various mutations, which might result in some wonderfully weird looking PCs. I have always assumed that such a race might very well be obsessed with cleansing these mutations from their genetic code. The Qullan could therefore represent what happens every time the Replicants have tried to remove those mutations from the genetic material they use to reproduce. This also gives PCs a good reason for adventuring — they are seeking out ancient technologies that can help them do genetic experiments without resulting in Qullan (whether or not this is even possible may very well be a central theme of a campaign).

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 2

No Dwarf, Elf or Halfling PCs

There are no halflings or halfling-derivative races within the FF. The only elves are Drow, who live deep beneath the earth and have little incentive to come to the surface (all their cool toys are broken once they see the light of day). The only dwarf-relatives are the svirfneblin of which we know this from the flavor text:

Only males have ever been seen and those only deep beneath the ground.

Given that in other editions, the various demi-humans that were available as PC races or classes show up in the monster sections, a Basic edition using the FF as its monster section would not have any dwarf, elf or halfling PCs. The latter due to a complete absence and the first two because there is no justification for drows or svirfneblins to go wandering with surface dwellers.

While I am hugely tempted to leave this at that (in my old age I tend to lean toward human-centric campaigns), I am guessing that (like me) there are gamers from every generation whose very first character was something other than a human. In order to scratch that itch (and to start making assumptions about what a generic D&D world might look like through the lens of this hypothetical rule set), there are several candidates for non-human PC race-as-classes:

Aarakocra

Even though this is one of the few good creatures found in the FF and it is reasonably anthropomorphic and has a hit die comparable to the elf in the MM, I have to reject it out of hand. The reason is found in the flavor text:

Aarakocra are extremely susceptible to claustrophobia.

Since Basic D&D is all about exploring dungeons, a PC race that won’t go underground sort of defeats the purpose.

Dakon

Although the base damage for these intelligent apes seems high (1d10 x2), the base damage for an elf in the MM is 1d10, the HD 1+1 and they can use spells. Dakon also have an HD 1+1, are lawful, speak common, are on good terms with lawful humans and can be found in a variety of environments except near bodies of water. One flavor text I very much like is this:

…the dakon will never attack except in self-defense or to recover stolen treasure from it.

This immediately brings to mind the dwarves of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and suggests that the dakon will make a very good substitute for dwarves. In fact, one could simply use the same basic stats or (as I might be tempted to) use the White Ape Class from the RCC.

Kenku

Again, the base stats for these bird-men appear to be on the powerful side; however, using the MM elf as a model, it is an easy thing to say to the average player: sure you start out worse, but you are going to end up being a whole lot better. There is even a flavor text that suggests that younger (and therefore weaker) kenku are far more prone to going on adventures:

Particularly adventurous kenku have been known to use [shape shift] to assume the form of a god and accept offerings from credulous worshippers, and this is but one example of the bizarre uses to which the kenku, and particularly the younger of the species, have put this power.

Since kenku can cast spells, they make an interesting stand-in for elves; however, some of the elven abilities would need to be traded out for the kenku abilities:

• Flight 18”
• Shape shift 1/30 days for up to seven days in a row.
• Pass as human via a disguise 50% of the time.
• They don’t appear to be able to speak, though they seem to speak to each other via telepathy. (For purposes of making them PCs, this last one can be done away with or have PC versions be a minority that can speak.)

Though these might be a bit on the powerful side, given that kenku are mischievous and prone to kidnapping as a means of making a living, there would be a powerful social stigma that PCs would have to deal with.

Quaggoth

These white, shaggy bipeds have an HD 1+2, are neutral and speak common (if haltingly). PCs could represent either the most intelligent of the quaggoths or half-breeds. Though they are much taller (7’ +), the fact that quaggoths are immune to poison suggests that they are a good substitute for halflings (and could therefore use these stats). Another alternative is to use the White Ape Hybrid Class from RCC (which combines fighter and thief abilities).

If used, these race-as-classes firmly move the generic D&D world away from high fantasy and a medieval european analog. In essence, these three are intelligent ape-, bird- and bear-men, suggesting a science fantasy world in the distant future where these races evolved through either mutation or experimentation. Such a world would have more in common with Vance’s Dying Earth and CAS’s Zothique than REH’s Conan or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. One might even be tempted to characterize it as a more serious/less gonzo version of Gamma World/Mutant Future. This leaves much room for introducing sci-fi elements and explaining various magic effects in terms of technology (Maliszewski’s take on wands, for example). For me, this is one of the most compelling aspects of this experiment, because it nicely scratches the science fantasy mash-up itch that I usually have to suppress or keep under wraps in most D&D games.

Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 1

Let me preface this by saying that one of my favorite poetic forms is haiku. It seems so easy — five syllables, seven syllable, five syllables; however, trying to create something truly beautiful with something so limited and small is a true challenge. This challenge often brings out my own creativity in a way that other forms of writing do not.

Thus, I was very much intrigued by Jeff Rient’s radical reduction of the 1ed PH weapon tables for his Wessex Campaign. Having had a lot of success, fun and creativity doing this sort of thing myself over the years I whole-heartedly agree with his assessment:

The lesson here might be that with a game as big as D&D one way of getting a handle on it is to cut it down to size.

Therefore, I happily followed him down the rabbit hole where he hypothesizes a campaign that only/primarily uses the Fiend Folio as its source for monsters. The FF had always been my favorite monster tome and I have gleefully used many of its inhabitants (even some of the goofiest).

This got my creative juices flowing and I am in full-on Gamer ADD mode. Given that I am not a huge fan of AD&D, the most likely way that I would ever implement such a concept would be with my favorite version of the game — B/X and its retro-clone LL. This gave me an intriguing way to further reduce the FF into a more easily digestible chunk — what would Basic D&D look like if it were only to use monsters from the FF?

Therefore, I went through the FF and gleaned only those monsters that might appear in the Wandering Monster Tables of a Basic D&D book — up to about 3+ Hit Dice . There are several very compelling implications to make about this list, so this will take multiple posts; however, I am going to begin with a criticism/concern.

As I was going through the FF and really trying to use it as a whole, one of its features really began to jump out at me — the length of each monster entry. It struck me that there are several truly creative and inspiring monsters like the Berbalang and Pênanggalan that I have never used because the flavor text was so long and complicated as to be virtually unusable for my style of fast and free play (who wants to skim through a page and a half of text to figure out how to use a randomly generated monster encounter?).

Curious, I did a cursory comparison of the FF to the MM. A quick (and probably inaccurate) count of monster headings in the Alphabetical Table of Contents revealed that the FF has about 161 and the MM about 212. The FF fits these headings into 91 pages while the MM does it in 97 pages. This means that while the FF averages less than 2 monsters per page (about 1.76), the MM has almost half an entry more per page (about 2.18). This only gets worse when one factors in monster headings that have a description followed by separate stat blocks like dragons and giants. The FF only manages to average 4 monsters per heading in these cases while the MM averages over 11 (11.4). In addition, the MM has a couple dozen entries that pack multiple stat blocks together (such as various animals with regular and giant versions). The FF has about three.

In other words, whereas the MM was one small step away from the bare-bones monster entries of OD&D and which made the MM one of those tomes that I constantly go back to no matter what version of the game I play, the FF is one (big?) step toward the over-complexity of later editions. Actually reading and re-reading some of these entries I am not sure if their length is a function of the complication of the game over time or simply an editorial need to fill enough space to justify a page count (probably both).

The implications of this for a Basic edition doesn’t bode well. Both the complexity and the verbosity of monster entries suggest a higher page count than 64, something I am not thrilled about. This is especially true when one considers that much of the complexity seems to be related to the growing canon of AD&D world/cosmology concepts like the various planes of existence.

The concept of the inner and outer planes has never set well with me, even before I became an Orthodox Christian. If, then, the page count beyond 64 is primarily taken up by cosmology and how it affects the game world not only are we one step closer to RPGs that spend more time telling us about their world than on mechanics (and thus limiting player freedom), but (more importantly) I may never have played the game.

Since my first exposure to D&D was with the Holmes edition, which itself was an exercise in DYI D&D, I have always been acutely aware of the freedom I had to mix and match as I please with the various components of the rules. AD&D (despite some of the claims of Gygax himself) was never the official way to play the game. Holmes gave me permission to fiddle as much as I wanted to. If my first exposure to D&D had been something I envision a Basic D&D flavored by the implications of only using FF monsters might be — complicated and constricting — I may have left D&D behind for greener pastures (the original Traveller comes to mind).